Yuri Anime

Hidamari Sketch anime gets a 4th season in which nothing happens cutely. Hidamari Sketch SP is slated for fall.

Nozomi/RightStuf announces the third and final Revolutionary Girl Utena Box set pre-orders and the nifty Rose Seal Ring extra. For a limited time, while supplies last, folks who order all three of the box sets will get a replica of Utena’s ring. I’m still weak at the knees that they managed to get us the ring!

Aniplex debuts the Puella Magi Madoka Magica trailer, subtitled. I like the focus on sweet, and the complete obfuscation of the entire story. This will be the anime equivalent of a 2’x4′ to the back of the head for some, I imagine.

Arca Jeth was first with the news that Sentai Filmworks has announced that they have licensed Project ICE. The DVD will come with a dub. Excuse me while I giggle at the idea of sitting through this anime again. Hee-hee. ^_^;

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Yuri Manga

Brand new YNN Correspondent Tomo K. wanted to share the news that Takemiya Jin-sensei has a new doujinshi for Comiket, starring Satomi from Kila Kila. When the doujinshi series is reprinted, Comic Zin will be running it. Great news for all Takemiya fans.

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Canadian Border / Manga Case

I mentioned last week that I was going to flog this issue for the next few weeks, so here we go!

I wrote a guest post for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund on the Issue: This Is Not A Pipe

Okazu Superhero Bruce McF wrote a fantastic piece for Daily Kos about the issue: Civil Rights and Comics Books: What’s on YOUR Laptop?

If you decide to write a piece exhorting your friends, fans, readers to support CBLDF, send me the link!

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Other News

If you’re in Tokyo between now and the 28th of August, you can visit the Yuru Yuri-themed cafe in Akihabara. I’m not sure if I’m relieved that it will close before I get to Tokyo. ^_^;

LGBT comics consortium Prism Comics announces that the deadline for their Queer Press Grant is September 1, 2011. Get your submissions in to be eligible. And, if you like the idea of LGBT comics, consider donating to the grant itself and support independent LGBT artists.

Hot Topic, home of ripping off pop culture and fine art to sell to mall-goers at premium prices, has announced that they will have a Sailor Moon costume for Halloween this year. Check out the video at ANN for a nasty-feeling cosplay party filmed by creepy guys ad a grainy screenshot of what looks like a cheaply made Sailor Moon costume. ^_^;;

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That’s a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Today was the big launch date for new manga platform JManga, the digital solution to manga fans’ desires. Of course it’s not perfect, no one expected it to be. But for Yuri fans, the lack of…almost anything…is notable and regrettable.

The initial launch for JManga is North America only. And while they said NA includes Canada, some Canadian readers have not been able to get on the system. Others have, so maybe it was an initial glitch that was rectified.

There are a number of ways to slice and dice manga, the most common is by demographic audience. Categories for shounen, seinen, shoujo and josei are very visible on the site. Of course that leaves Yuri folks wondering where will Yuri be listed…if it ever makes it on the platform. Is Comic Yuri Hime seinen or josei?  (JRB tells us that there are Yuri category labels under both seinen and josei, and sensibly concludes that Yuri will be categorized by the audience for that magazine. Which still makes me wonder where Yuri Hime will be listed. ^_^)  So, setting that aside, I jumped over to…

The Publisher Page. This was a little more useful for me, because I know what publishers I care about. And while a number of the most popular Yuri-friendly publishers are listed, Ichijinsha, Hobunsha and Media Factory are all “Coming Soon.” Which means that all of the titles from those publishers and their magazines are not on the system, yet. That left Hakusensha, and my vague hope that Rakuen Le Paradis would be listed…. Unfortunately, it was not. The only Hakusensha titles listed are titles already quite familiar to US readers, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Ouran Host Club, etc. This left Futabasha, our one bright spot of hope.

Sadly, Enterbrain has yet to join. Boo-hoo, no Romae Thermae or other interesting Comic Beam titles for you. And vexingly, the only title available from Monthly IKKI is *not* GUNJO. Grr.

Okay, so there is good news out there. As I mentioned Futabasha is a beacon for us.

Click on the Magazine Pages and you’ll see our old friend, Comic High. Click the Comic High Page and lo and behold! Morinaga Miruku’s GIRLFRIENDS is one of the choices.

(Along with Towa Oshima’s Joshi Kousei and Hitohira for some other amusing, yet questionable Yuri-service.)

GIRLFRIENDS does have a free preview, so once you sign up, you can see what it looks like. It’s got a not terribly sophisticated translation, right from the get-go. But the reader is browser-based, simple and easy to navigate. I approve of not having to download anything to read the manga.

The purchase of things is on the “points” system, something I find annoying on top of the subscription. It appears that the $10/month subscription plan gives you 1000 points. An average volume of manga is priced about 899 points, so for your subscription, you can buy 5 chapters or one full volume per month. Once you have bought a manga, it stays in your account, even if you change back to the free account, so you you still “own” that copy as long as the site is in existence. If you want to buy something, but don’t have enough points you can pay for the extra points, according to the User Guide. But you can’t pay for points without having a subscription first. so you can’t just buy what you want when you want it.

As depressing as all this seems, check out the Signup Page. “Yuri” is a checkable box under Interests. I haven’t yet attempted to buy the paid subscription, but when I do, I’ll let you know how it goes.

So, while it’s a slow starter for Yuri fans, there is hope. If we all put pressure on them (i,e, check that Yuri box) to get Ichijinsha and Hobunsha (and the Hakusensha titles that are relevant to us)  into the fold, it could well be worth that monthly fee. Here’s hoping!

Addendum: Some previews are relatively short, i.e., 7 pages for GIRLFRIENDS. So, you’re going to be making decisions rather quickly.  At 7 pages, you’re making a decision based solely on art and tone. A major boost would be the chance to purchase (or read for free) the whole first chapter, so we could get an idea of the art, tone and story. Some manga do have the whole first chapter. I think that ought to be standard.

Also of note, Ultra Jump magazine isn’t on the system, so no Hayate x Blade for us, either. That would be a MAJOR draw for me.

So right now, it’s cool to read some off-beat unknown manga, but no good for getting any of the manga I already read and would like to get digitally.

Yuri Manga

Top news (for me, at least,) is the imminent publishing of Fu~Fu (ふ～ふ) from Comic Yuri Hime. This wonderful book will hit Japanese shelves on August 18. Do not miss this one. If you never buy a book in Japanese, make this one the exception. It’s moe enough for those as like, and full of decent, honest, love-love between two women for all of us.

I feel like I already mentioned this, but I’m going to again – Morinaga Milk’s Tsubomi series, Himitsu no Recipe (ひみつのレシピ) is also on sale this month.

Kurata Uso’s Yuri Danshi (百合男子) is ready to make his hyper-fannish appearance in a first collected volume.

Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 5 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり、 Vol.5) will be hitting the street at the end of the month, as well.

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Snatches of Yuri

Kettama! Shuukyuu Riot Girls (けったま！～蹴球☆らいおっとガールズ) looks like Yuri-service, maybe a little more, on a soccer team. Not quite the sports manga -Yuri mix I’m looking for, but you might enjoy it. Volume 2 seems to have some Yuri.

Beni Yuri – Girls Love H (紅百合 – Girls Love H) is quite obviously a porn collection. If you like those, you may want to try this one.

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Yuri-ish Anime-ish News

Because there’s nothing better than more of the same, check out the new Ikkitousen Trailer for Ikkitousen: Shuugaku Toushi Keppu-roku

STARZ has announced the projected date for the Live-action Noir series as Summer 2012. And there is now an official character sheet, so we can start chewing our livers out about the changes. Well, at least I don’t feel obliged to give STARZ my money now. ^_^

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Other News

Earlier this summer, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund announced that they would be assisting with the defense of a man who was detained at the Canadian border for having manga and comics on his electronic devices that the border patrol deemed offensive. He is now facing jail time if his right to look at pictures of things is not defended.  The CBLDF is asking the manga community, especially, to donate money to help them in this guy’s defense. I wrote passionately about our relationship in the Yuri Community to this case already and I will be doing so again. It’s not enough to RT a tweet here. There is a person – one of us, a fan – who could go to jail because the Canadian Border Patrol cannot tell the difference between a person and drawing (or stick drawing) of a person. Whether or not you like what he had on his iPad is absolutely not the issue. He might not like what you have on yours. Certainly the Canadian Border Patrol might not like it. Please, if you have not contributed to this case, consider sending even a few bucks to the CDLDF. We have got to set a positive precedent for freedom of self-expression and we really have to do it now, and not just hope the sword won’t fall on us, too.

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Even Other-er News

Takarazuka University to host Hatsune Miku Concert. What else is there to even say about that?

Madoka Magika is getting a PSP game. I doubt I’ll play it, but I might think about it rather harder than I usually think about games.

Ichijinsha is publishing a Yuru Yuri Novel Anthology, which is a very interesting idea. I wonder how successful it’ll be?

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That’s a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Super short news report this week, I’m busy having some summer fun.


Yuri Anime

Please Kill Me 4-koma, described by ANN as a cross between Noir and Azumanga Daioh has been given the go-sign for an anime. Looks cute, as one would expect from a gag comic strip about assassins at school.

Nozomi/Right Stuf announces a Gakuen Alice boxset. More Mikan x Hotaru cuteness for your viewing pleasure!

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Yuri Manga

From Fujieda Miyabi-sensei on Twitter, Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan, Volume 2 Limited Edition (飴色紅茶館歓談 2巻 限定版) is now up for pre-order!

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That’s a wrap for this week.

Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Here’s some items that didn’t make it into yesterday’s news report, but might be of interest to you: